Maarten van Beek, from Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues performed a prospective multicenter study to examine the long-term effect of SCS on pain ratings, treatment success and failure, and complications in 48 patients with PDPN.

The researchers found that after five years, 55 percent of patients had experienced treatment success and 80 percent of patients with a permanent implant still used their SCS device. The median duration of SCS treatment was 60 months. Higher Michigan Diabetic Neuropathy Score was associated with treatment failure during the five-year follow-up (hazard ratio, 3.9).

"SCS is successful in reducing chronic pain symptoms in the lower extremities of patients with PDPN up to five years after initiation of treatment," the authors write.